Jennifer Coopersmith

Energy, the Subtle Concept

The discovery of Feynman's blocks from Leibniz to Einstein

Jennifer Coopersmith

Description

Energy is at the heart of physics (and of huge importance to society) and yet no book exists specifically to explain it, and in simple terms. In tracking the history of energy, this book is filled with the thrill of the chase, the mystery of smoke and mirrors, and presents a fascinating human-interest story. Following the history provides a crucial aid to understanding: this book explains the intellectual revolutions required to comprehend energy, revolutions as profound as those stemming from Relativity and Quantum Theory. Texts by Descartes, Leibniz, Bernoulli, d'Alembert, Lagrange, Hamilton, Boltzmann, Clausius, Carnot and others are made accessible, and the engines of Watt and Joule are explained.

Many fascinating questions are covered, including:

- Why just kinetic and potential energies - is one more fundamental than the other?- What are heat, temperature and action?- What is the Hamiltonian?- What have engines to do with physics?- Why did the steam-engine evolve only in England?- Why S=klogW works and why temperature is IT.

Using only a minimum of mathematics, this book explains the emergence of the modern concept of energy, in all its forms: Hamilton's mechanics and how it shaped twentieth-century physics, and the meaning of kinetic energy, potential energy, temperature, action, and entropy. It is as much an explanation of fundamental physics as a history of the fascinating discoveries that lie behind our knowledge today.

Energy, the Subtle Concept

The discovery of Feynman's blocks from Leibniz to Einstein

Jennifer Coopersmith

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: Feynman's blocks2. Perpetual motion is prohibited3. Vis viva: the fist 'block' of energy4. Heat: seventeenth century5. Heat in the eighteenth century6. The discovery of latent and specific heats7. A hundred and one years of mechanics: Newton to Lagrange via Daniel Bernoulli8. A tale of two countries: the rise of the steam engine and the caloric theory of heat9. Rumford, Davy and Young10. Naked heat: the gas laws and the specific heat of gases11. Two contrasting characters: Fourier and Herapath12. Sadi Carnot13. Hamilton and Green14. The mechanical equivalent of heat: Mayer, Joule and Waterston15. Faraday and Helmholtz16. The laws of thermodynamics: Thomson and
Clausius17. A forward look: Maxwell, Boltzmann, Planck, Schrodinger and Einstein18. Impossible things; difficult things19. Conclusions

Energy, the Subtle Concept

The discovery of Feynman's blocks from Leibniz to Einstein

Jennifer Coopersmith

Author Information

Jennifer Coopersmith received her PhD in nuclear physics from the University of London, and was later a research fellow at TRIUMF, University of British Columbia. She was for many years an associate lecturer for the Open University (London and Oxford) honing her skills at answering those "damn-fool profound and difficult questions" that students ask. She currently does similar work on astrophysics courses for Swinburne University in Melbourne.

Energy, the Subtle Concept

The discovery of Feynman's blocks from Leibniz to Einstein

Jennifer Coopersmith

Reviews and Awards

"The conservation of energy is arguably the most important law in physics. But what exactly is being conserved? Are some forms of energy more fundamental than others? You will have to read the book to find out. Coopersmith sets out to answer such questions and to explain the concept of energy through the history of its discovery. This is neither a straightforward narrative nor one for the faint-hearted. Those not put off by the odd bit of mathematics, will be well-rewarded by dipping into this book." -- Manjit Kumar, New Scientist

"In clear and engaging prose, Coopersmith shows how the modern understanding of energy was formulated, moving from the first documented discussions of simple machines and perpetual motion in ancient Greece, to the work of Gottfried Leibniz and other 17th-century thinkers, to Einstein's theory of relativity and beyond. Because Energy, The Subtle Concept is a fascinating read, both physicists and non-physicists who want to learn more about the history of energy will enjoy it." Lisa Crystal, Physics Today, April 2011